Thin, Light Barrels
- Thread starter bsekf
- Start date
You can have everything you want! You can not though usualy have everything you want at one time or in one rifle or in one vechile or in one job etc.....
If hunting in traditional sense not brain dead manner where you cary a carbon fiber tripod, krestel, balsistics computer, multiple magazines with different ammo and the like.....Your first shot will be your best chance of a fantastic outcome and if you practice a lot your fast second followup shot will be decent at best and each succesive shot will be down hill a thin light barrel is not a bad thing! If you want to kill 10-15 pp-dogs in a row in rapid fashion then a thin light barrel is a terrible pick!
Let your desired outcome and methodology tell you what tool you should choose.
No one wants to use a Dangerious 5 hunting rifle to shoot 200 P-Dogs or Ground Hogs in a day.
Once you know what you want to do with a rifle the rest is easy.
I love my Marlin 45-70 but I would not use it as my first choice to take out high volume ground hogs. I would not take a 30-06 to Silhouttee match!
I likewise would not build a 7lbs. 338LM rifle because it would beat me to death at 51 years old!
If hunting in traditional sense not brain dead manner where you cary a carbon fiber tripod, krestel, balsistics computer, multiple magazines with different ammo and the like.....Your first shot will be your best chance of a fantastic outcome and if you practice a lot your fast second followup shot will be decent at best and each succesive shot will be down hill a thin light barrel is not a bad thing! If you want to kill 10-15 pp-dogs in a row in rapid fashion then a thin light barrel is a terrible pick!
Let your desired outcome and methodology tell you what tool you should choose.
No one wants to use a Dangerious 5 hunting rifle to shoot 200 P-Dogs or Ground Hogs in a day.
Once you know what you want to do with a rifle the rest is easy.
I love my Marlin 45-70 but I would not use it as my first choice to take out high volume ground hogs. I would not take a 30-06 to Silhouttee match!
I likewise would not build a 7lbs. 338LM rifle because it would beat me to death at 51 years old!
With my 6.5cm Tikka lite barrel, I will many times shoot larger groups taking my time and letting the barrel cool after 3 rounds instead of just ripping off 10-15 as fast as I can. Why? It's not the barrel.
When I let it cool, I get up walk around reset the bags etc. I sometimes end up not getting set the same way every time whereas if I continue to shoot while I'm laying there in the same position and all I'm doing is putting another mag in so this makes my position is more consistent. This is with 20+ round groups that are 1". So it's an accurate lightweight rifle.
When I let it cool, I get up walk around reset the bags etc. I sometimes end up not getting set the same way every time whereas if I continue to shoot while I'm laying there in the same position and all I'm doing is putting another mag in so this makes my position is more consistent. This is with 20+ round groups that are 1". So it's an accurate lightweight rifle.
Hunting or competing?
Not necessarily....
I've seen plenty of lighter contour barrels shoot just as good as a heavier contour barrel. The old saying is a heavier barrel shoots better than a lighter contour but....
How was the barrel made?
How stress free is the material?
Bedding?
Barrel channel clearance because of vibration/whip?
Maybe a real light barrel wants a pressure point on it when you bed the action into the stock.
In regards to barrels my saying is this.... the straighter the blank(barrel), the more uniform the bore and groove sizes over the length of the barrel and the more uniform the twist and the more stress free the material is... the more forgiving the barrel is going to be.
My wifes 260 Rem is on a rebuilt Browning Sako Safari... whole gun with scope loaded weighs 8#. Barrel measures only .600" at the muzzle. The barrel only weighs about 2# itself. That gun will give you 5/8" groups consistently for the day with the hunting ammo I load for it (either Sierra 140 SBT or Nosler 120 Btips).
If you start shooting any weight contour barrel and if you see the groups start stringing on the target... don't adjust the sights. Let it cool and start shooting again... if it starts out at the original point of aim and then starts to drift again as it heats up... to me that is a barrel with a lot of residual stress in the blank and or has a bow to it..... because the steel has a memory it goes back to where it started when it cools off. If it's doing that... your not going to fix it.
I've seen and have had plenty of guns with a lighter weight contour barrel shoot as good or better than a heavier contour.
Look at accuracy test fixtures that ammo/bullet makers use. You see barrels that are 1.250" o.d. straight, 1.350" o.d. and even 1.750". Guess what... the 1.250" o.d. barrels shoot just as good as the others.
Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels
Got nothing to do with hammer forging.
D-4297
Gold $$ Contributor
We really do have some masochists on here . Why does that not surprise me ?
Curious if this is the case then why bother with the carbon wrap? Why would we bother with large barrels for competition?
HandgunHTR
Gold $$ Contributor
Larger barrels = more weight. More weight = less recoil. Less recoil = less recoil fatigue. Less recoil fatigue = better shooter performance.
It really is as simple as that.
In regards to those stating they don't have to take follow-up shots when hunting, come out and get into a sounder of pigs sometime.
I have had nights where my suppressor was glowing red I was touching off so many rounds. Multiple magazine changes as I was chasing pigs out of peanut fields with lead. I want a barrel that isn't going to walk in that situation. One of my best is one from Frank.
What about the carbon wrap?
HandgunHTR
Gold $$ Contributor
You honestly don't get as much weight reduction from carbon wrapped barrels as you might think.
And not many folks are using carbon wrapped barrels for F-Class or Benchrest either.
The carbon wrap to me is like fluting... it's cosmetic. You want to save weight just drop the contour it'll shoot just as good. It's like fluting if you like it because of the way it looks I'll take your $$$ all day long.
Heavier barrels for target shooting/competition. Several reasons for it. It helps reduce recoil which shooting extended strings of fire over x amount of time helps the shooter as well as your taking less of a beating, barrel does take longer to heat up which can help accuracy, and does effect weight distribution and tracking of the gun on target / make the gun more stable etc...
I've had plenty of palma contour barrels shoot as good as any hvy varmint contour barrel in calibers from 6mm thru 30cal and the palma contours are a good .5# to a full 1.5# lighter depending on which one your looking at vs the Hvy varmint and the palma is at 30" vs the HV at 28". That's just one example.
Again look at some of the accuracy test barrels. They are as small as 1.250" diameter straight and up to 1.750" diameter that we make for some of the test fixtures... I have yet to see one shoot better than the other.
One bullet/ammo maker was always buying 1.350" diameter barrels because that's how they're fixture was set up. Yes I/we charge them extra money for the O.S diameters....a couple/to a few years ago they redid they're fixture so now they use 1.250" diameter barrels and they see no accuracy difference and now they are saving $ to boot. So things like this and the palma contour example throw the heavier is better to some extent out the window.
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Well, I’d heard that about the fluting but I hadn’t heard that about the carbon. See them a lot in the nrl hunter setups and didn’t realize it was for looks. What would be the lightest contour you’d recommend in an nrl hunter barrel, say 6.5 prc? I’ve been thinking about trying it but I’m pretty heavy to start with so was thinking carbon but would rather spend less.
Had a rifle built by Accuracy Unlimited (Medford WI) that had a 22" "O" profile Krieger barrel (their smallest) ChroMoly barrel. It was chambered in 6.5x06. The rifle could be fired and never shifted zero when hot or at ambient temperature. It would fire 3 into 3/8" to 1/2" groups, hot or cold. Far more practical accuracy than I could ever use. It was an elk rifle.
Heavy barrels are good in the right application,bench,prone,vehicle or if you got someone to carry it for you.ive walked miles and miles lugging a varmint rifle around for very little gain.as you get older most get wiser.Quality light weight barrels shoot just as good as heavy one's for most hunting applications.ive culled deer in bunches with well placed head shots,at range with no problem at all and never worry about that barrel walking as it warms up.
Orr89rocz
Silver $$ Contributor
To be fair that isnt hunting that’s eradication lol
Orr89rocz
Silver $$ Contributor
I wonder if thats one of those threshold things where once you get over a certain diameter for a certain cartridge, theres nothing else to gain from going bigger. How would their results be with a .565” taper i wonder? A .750? A 1” blank?
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